You know when you get an email and your name is in the subject line or in the opening salutation? I bet you open more of those emails (or at least they catch your eye more). The reason is, it works! Here are some email marketing campaign personalization tips to get more people opening and reading your emails.

If you are capturing subscriber emails and their first name on your email opt-in forms or pop-ups, you definitely want to use that to your advantage. Being able to personalize your email is as simple as using a “name” field in your capture form, pop-up or landing page. Whatever you actually label that field is up to you, but typically you just need someone’s first name to personalize your email campaigns.

Once you have a subscriber’s name, you can simply just select the “name” field, for example, where you want their first name to appear. On your end in your email service editor, you might see a code (also called a merge tag) such as {name} but that just lets you know you are inserting the “name” field.

Your subscriber will see their name on their end when they get the email, or whatever they entered in the “name” field when they subscribed to your list.

Email Personalization Best Practices

When personalizing your email campaigns, don’t overdo it. You don’t ALWAYS have to use someone’s name. Sometimes you might want to use it in the subject line and then not in the email body. Or you might want to switch that up – not in the subject line but do use it in the email.

Yes, personalizing your emails can connect more with your subscriber. Remember, even if your email list has 10,000 subscribers, you are still writing to one person. So, write as though you were writing a letter to just one person.

Sometimes, it might make sense to use their name more than once. For example, if you want to circle back to a point you’re making, or if you want to address the person again.

So, Mike, whatya say? Are you in for the training tomorrow?

Well, Sarah, that’s all I can reveal at this time. We’ll unveil the rest during our official launch tomorrow.

Wouldn’t it be cool to know that people on your email subscriber list actually look forward to and want to read your emails? It’s definitely possible. Writing eye-catching email subject lines that make people actually WANT to open your email is not only doable, it’s pretty simple if you stick to these six key tips.

The whole point of the email subject line is to get people to just open the email.

My background is in magazine editorial, and just like the blurbs on the cover of a magazine, their whole point is to get people to just pick up the magazine. If they open the email, you’ve won. What happens from that point is a different subject.

So, here are six of my best tips for writing eye-catching email subject lines.

Make Your Email Subject Line Irresistible

Yeah, that’s a lot easier said than done. Wouldn’t it be great if all your email subject lines were irresistible? Here’s the point: make it harder for the person to NOT open the email than to open the email. Create a fear of loss.

This goes deeper than just writing an email subject line “This Week’s Newsletter” or “News Updates and Latest Posts.” Instead, get specific. What is the reader going to get out of the email? What specific problem are you solving or specific question are you answering? Focus on that, and let them know what value they will get from the email. Examples:

Keep Your Subject Lines Short

There are more distractions today than ever, so people don’t have time to sift through a bunch of long emails. Plus, people read their email subject lines from all different devices, allowing for a different amount of space.

Since you don’t know what device people will be using to read your email, keep the subject line short and sweet. Don’t put key words at the very end, because they might get cut off in the email preview.

Get to the point up front.

Use the Recipient’s First Name

If you’re using fields in your email marketing, you probably at least have a field for subscribers’ first name. Adding their first name in the email subject line is a lot more personable, and a HubSpot report titled “Science of Email 2014” found that emails with the name in the subject line have a higher open rate.

The cool thing is that it doesn’t really change what you want to say. Here are a few examples:

David, here’s your free weight loss guide.Jill, missing this ONE thing cost me $10,000!Frank, these are my best blog secrets.Hey, Susan, still coming to the training?

You get the idea. Don’t overdo this, but test it out a few times to see what results you get

Don’t Spoil the Movie

If you saw an awesome movie with a terrific ending (maybe a cool, unexpected twist), you’d probably tell your friends and family about how great the movie is. But of course you wouldn’t spoil the awesome ending for them.

If you did that, you’d be a jerk. And you’re not a jerk!

Email subject lines are similar. Use the subject line to “advertise” and tease. It’s a hint of what’s inside. Create intrigue and curiosity. Don’t always tell them all the details.

The details are inside the email. To get those, they have to open it and read it. Remember, that’s the whole point of the email subject line—to get them to open the email.

Use Emoji in Your Email Subject Lines

According to a study by Experian, 56 percent of brands using an emoji in their email subject lines had a higher unique open rate.

Sure, they can get annoying, but if used the right way, they can make your email subject lines. Today, we go through and delete emails (most of which are already filtered) at lightning speed. Making yours stand out is key.

About half of all people check their emails on their phone, which is perfect for emojis. Some of popular emoji to try are the lightning bolt (flash sale), fire (hot, new), heart (connection, caring), sun (new, summer), and of course several face emotions.

WARNING: Some email services might show some emoji differently.

Create Scarcity and Urgency (NOW)!

One great way to get people wanting to open your email is to create a sense of urgency or scarcity.

FLASH SALE! 50% off ends tonight…I mean it this time!Just 12 Hours Left…Sarah, last chance to enroll in the boot camp!Jason, training starts in 3 hours. You coming?

Those are just a few examples that let people know they are about to miss something. Something is happening soon, and they need to take action.

A good way to do this is to create a deadline or tell them what they need to do. Use an action verb. “Open this for your 25% off coupon.”

It seems like there are a hundred blogs per second popping up on just about every topic. But what does it take to write blog posts that attract more people? How do you stand out in an endless sea of blogs?

I’ve also read a lot of writing that is so real and genuine that you can almost see the writer’s personality in the words they write. That’s good writing! Not necessarily because it’s grammatically perfect, but because it’s real.

Don’t use words or phrases you wouldn’t say. Don’t try to impress people. Being genuine is way more important. If you have a blog, it’s probably something you’re passionate about. Use that. Focus on that.

If you are more genuine in your writing, your passion about your subject will shine through and connect with your readers. You will also get more fulfillment knowing that your blog is genuine.

Put Your Blog Writing to the Test

How do you test to see if your blog post or article is your voice? Read it out loud. If it doesn’t sound like you—if it sounds odd—it’s probably not your voice. Ask yourself, “Would I talk to someone this way? Do I use these words when I talk?”

Another way to test your writing it to read it to people who know you well. See what they say. They may pick up on some things that you can’t.

Online courses are quickly becoming one of the top ways for people to learn new skills. Teaching online courses is a great way to share your passion and expertise with the world while making money at the same time. If you’re going to dive into online teaching, you’ll need some online course equipment essentials.

The biggest thing that keeps people from teaching their own online courses?

They don’t know what equipment to use.

They think it’s too expensive.

We’re going to take care of both of those right now. I’m going to show you the six main pieces of online course equipment I use to create my course. All for less than $250 TOTAL!

And you likely can spend a lot less than that. Ready? Let’s go!

Please note: Some of the resources and tools below include my affiliate link, and I may earn a small commission if you do decide to purchase any of these great tools. It’s absolutely no extra charge to you. These are the specific tools I have used and had success with, and I would only recommend something I feel strongly about.

Physical Online Course Equipment

The three pieces of equipment below are what I currently use to create my online courses. This is the stuff many people think is just too expensive or too fancy. It’s neither.

All are incredibly simple to use and can be found for a grand total of $130. You can likely find them used for half that price. All require no set up. Just plug in and go!

The Blue brand makes terrific mics. This handy Snowball mic records crisp sound for your online course. It has three settings – one for picking up the voice of one person, and the others for picking up multiple people such as in a round-table interview.

It stands about 10 inches tall and is attached to a tripod stand that collapses for easy storage or portability.

So, how do you use it? Just plug the USB cord into a USB port in your computer and it’s ready to roll. Just open whatever recording software you want to use (more on this later), and select the mic as your recording device. It should show up as “Blue Snowball” in your list of microphones and/or recording devices.

This one might be my favorite. This little powerhouse from Logitech records 1080p HD video and can capture up to 15 MP photos.

It’s about 7 inches wide and weighs about half a pound. It also has an adjustable base that can be screwed onto most tripods. I use an extendable desktop camera tripod with it.

Like the Blue Snowball mic, this camera has a USB cord that is simply plugged into any USB port and ready to roll. You’ll know it’s on when the curved blue lights on either side of the camera come on.

This camera has a built-in mic, but I suggest using the Blue Snowball as your microphone even when using this webcam. By the way, don’t let the term “webcam” make you think this is limited to recording for the Internet only. You can also use it to record yourself for your course, or use it to record yourself while also doing a screen-cast recording of your computer screen (again, more on this later).

There may be settings where you want to record yourself on camera and it doesn’t make sense to use the Blue Snowball mic that might be too far away. You need a lapel mic.

This one’s pretty cool for only $20. It has a sturdy build and it’s terrific to use with cell phones.

You just plug the audio jack into the audio/headset port of your phone or computer. If using a computer, you just switch the setting to “ON” and select it as your audio recording device. If you’re using it with a phone or other type of camera, you leave the setting in the “OFF” mode since it will get power from the phone.

This BOYA lapel mic has a long cord so you can be further away from your camera if you need to be. You can hide the cord under your clothes. Using this mic will give you a richer and better-quality sound that using the mic from your camera or phone, especially if you are more than a couple feet away. It keeps you from sounding like you’re trapped in a hallway (which is a great thing!).

Online Course Software

The other half of the 6 online course equipment essentials is software. The best news is that you may already be using a couple of these. If you’re not, you’ll probably be pretty surprised at what they can do and how simple they are.

I’m a PC user, so I use PowerPoint to create any slides I might need for my online courses. If you’re a Mac person (you know, one of “those” people), you might want to check out Keynote.

The coolest thing about PowerPoint? You probably already have it on your computer. Remember earlier when I said you can get all six of these online course equipment essentials for no more than $250? PowerPoint is roughly $100 of that, so if you already have it, well you’re awesome and that takes away a huge chunk of your cost.

I’m a big fan of using slides and then recording my screen as I teach my online courses through my microphone (see how all of this is coming together?). This works really well for me because I do a lot of on-screen tutorials.

With PowerPoint, you can create any size slide you need, but I recommend keeping it in a 16:9 widescreen ratio, as this will work perfectly for most computer screens, phones and other mobile devices.

If you’re not quite ready for Photoshop (or can’t afford it yet), then you gotta check out Canva.

It’s an awesome online photo-editing tool with a ton of free templates, graphics and shape elements. Get as simple or as fancy as you’d like.

Canva can be used to create your online course cover image or thumbnail, any cool graphics you want in your course, PowerPoint custom templates, or even promotional images for your course. It’s really fun to just play around with seeing what cool stuff you can create.

Want to know how to record your computer screen? This is the best software I have found for the price.

There is a free version that limits recordings to 15 minutes, and slaps a Screencast-O-Matic watermark on your recordings.

The paid version? Just $15 per year. Peanuts.

The paid version has unlimited recording time, no watermark and a lot of video editing tools. You can also incorporate your webcam while recording your computer screen activity. OR, just record the webcam.

The one drawback is that video is limited to 720p HD resolution instead of 1080p HD. But I suspect that will change soon, if it hasn’t by the time you’re reading this.

Screencast-O-Matic also has cursor highlight, zoom features, and drawing features. You can cut video, add video or images, quickly add your logo to a video, add audio tracks and sever other things.

Landing pages (or lead capture pages) can be a powerful way to promote your business, product, eBook or course online. MailerLite lets you create them for free as part of its Webforms feature.

Landing page services such as LeadPages ClickFunnels charge a monthly fee. Sure, those services have more customization, but if you want to create your own professional landing pages for free, give MailerLite a try.

Here are some things you can do with them. Be sure to read through the post and watch the video tutorial at the end where I create a landing page from beginning to end.

Please note that some links below may include my affiliate link. If you decide to purchase any of these products or services through any of these links, it will be of no extra cost to you, but I may receive a compensation.

Choose a MailerLite Landing Page Template

Currently there are 10 different landing page templates on MailerLite. All are very professional and completely customizable.

The cool thing about starting with a template is that it gives you ideas for how you want to customize your landing page. You can almost see yours taking shape.

The templates are each focused on a specific purpose, such as to promote an eBook, an online course, or just to announce an upcoming product. You can link these to your email automation that triggers as soon as someone opts in on the landing page.

One of the biggest mistakes in growing my online businesses was not capturing emails earlier. I missed out on THOUSANDS of emails. (Still hurts!)

Capturing emails to grow a following is a MASSIVE part of your online business success. I’m currently moving my email marketing service away from MailChimp to MailerLite. Here’s why.

I started looking into MailerLite about two weeks ago, checking out their automation service, subscriber forms and campaign editor. I was able to convert my two main email lists over in one day.

Be sure to scroll down to the end for an on-screen tutorial showing how these features work.

Please note that some links below may include my affiliate link. If you decide to purchase any of these products or services through any of these links, it will be of no extra cost to you, but I may receive a compensation.

MailerLite Has Free Automation Email (Series)

The main thing that drew me to MailerLite was its free email automation service. In fact, all of MailerLite’s services are free up to 1,000 subscribers (more on this later).

Setting up a series of pre-written emails that automatically send in a predetermined sequence is the core of email marketing. It allows you to build trust with your following and lead them to what you eventually want them to do (purchase your product, hire you, enroll in your course, etc.).

MailerLite’s new feature is called Automation Workflows. You can set your emails to send in order when someone joins one of your subscriber lists. You can also set more detailed options such as what to do with a subscriber who doesn’t open or who does or doesn’t click on a link.

Basically, you can create a flow or a tree that funnels subscribers based on what action they take. Of course, you don’t have to do this. Your automation can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be or it needs to be.

Yes, MailChimp has a ton of automation features. But MailerLite’s automation is FREE, which is awesome for beginners and anyone with smaller subscriber lists.

Simple Drag-and-Drop Editor

Much like MailChimp, MailerLite has a drag-and-drop editor for creating individual email campaigns and subscriber forms.

There are several options including photo boxes, text boxes, video, titles, galleries, etc. MailerLite is still new, so the editor can use some improvements. Some of the photo areas are far away from the text, and there is some wasted space. But there are still a lot of customizations such as several fonts to choose from and custom colors.

With a straight-up comparison, MailChimp (image below) and MailerLite have a very similar drag-and-drop editor.

Everything’s Free Up to 1,000 Subscribers

MailerLite is new, so maybe they are offering everything or free for up to 1,000 subscribers to maximize the number of users.

Even at more than 1,000 subscribers, the first paid level is just $10 per month. That level is for 1,001 to 2,500 subscribers. For comparison, 2,501 to 5,000 subscribers is $20 per month, which is a great deal. You can also pay annually and save 30 percent.

The ability to create automated email series, customized landing pages and access to several different templates for FREE is pretty damn sweet.

Great MailerLite Landing Page Templates and Forms

Speaking of landing pages, it’s pretty rate to find them for free that actually look good.

Check out a landing page here I created using MailerLite to promote my free training on how to attract and land your dream customers (you should take that training, by the way… mmmmkay?!).

Landing Pages (a.k.a. Lead Capture Pages) are part of MailerLite’s Webforms section. As I write this post, there are eight different landing page templates on MailerLite. This is a HUUUUUGE benefit over MailChimp. And this is my favorite part of what I’ve discovered using MailerLite.

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Do you want to take your home business to the next level? Do you want to learn how to attract and land your dream clients online? Do you want to create streams of qualified leads that find you and want to work with you?

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The contract economy is growing quickly. Technology has allowed more and more people to work remotely on a contract/1099 basis. The truth is, there are a whole lot of ways to make money from home today. And of you are reading this, you probably found a way that works fro you.

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Want some free home business coaching? The stop by my blog where I'm regularly adding fresh home business coaching tips. I blog about generating leads online, how to write like a pro, personal development, online branding, network marketing... heck, I even blog about blogging.

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I’d love to talk to you about creating a professional online presence that generates leads, grows your network and, of course, makes you money! I have created some of the top-ranking websites and blogs in the industries I’ve been involved with, some of which have generated thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars a month in sales.